Musings on the Celtic Tarot: Swords

Suit of Swords--Celtic Tarot, Davis  

The first thing I notice about this suit is the arcing of lightning or electricity and its various manifestations throughout. You can see the first stirrings of it on the tip of the sword in the Ace, then the big spark jumping between sword tips in the Two. It's gone in the Three, but beginning to whirl up again behind the swords in the Four, goes a little crazy in the Five, shoots a clear steady beam in the Six, becomes a full on power storm in the Seven, then is pretty much gone in Eight, Nine and Ten. The background of those cards also appears a deeper red. Why? Looking closer, you can see that there is a ball of energy in Eight, a few glimmering pinpoints in Nine, and a few even smaller ones in Ten. Curious...what could it mean?

Musings on the Celtic Tarot: Cups

Cups suit from Celtic Tarot, Davis, 3rd edition 2002

The Cups do not lend themselves immediately to a continuous story, as the Wands suit does. There is a thread that runs through them, though. Each card features cups suffused in a kind of effervescent glow, suspended in front of a circular pattern reminiscent of a rose window. The groupings of the Cups and a few subtle cues in the rose window are all the clues you get, really, to help you interpret these cards.

Musings on the Celtic Tarot: Wands

Celtic Tarot, Aquarian 1990

I received my second copy of the Celtic Tarot (Courtney Davis) the other day, and have been admiring it since. I believe this is the most beautiful pips-only deck that I have seen yet. In the photo above, I have arranged them so that the bottom row is Wands, next up Cups, then Swords, and the top row is Coins, with courts in a pile at the end of each row. You can see that the suits are linked by colour, inner border style, and in the case of the Coins, by shape of the design. The Wands all feature the Sun, Cups are contained in circles on a blue background, the Swords are red and feature diamond patterns, and the Coins have a green background with Celtic knot discs in gold. Unlike some pip decks, there are many cues to meaning in the design and coloring of each pip card, so it seems like a good idea to have a closer look at them.

Prairie Tarot -- Becoming who you choose to be

I found this court card exercise at Alison's This Game of Thrones blog, and thought I'd give it a try.

1  Think of a single area of your life that you'd like to work on.
2  Choose a Court Card that best reflects where you are right Now.  
3  Choose another Court Card that best reflects your future Goal, how you'd like to be.
4  Set them out with the Now card on the left and the Goal card on the right. Leave two spaces between them.
5  Shuffle your remaining Court Cards* and think about the journey from one to the other.
6  Draw one card whose energies will HELP you make the transition. Set it after the Now card.
7 Draw one card whose energies will HINDER you from making the transition. Set in the remaining gap. 
*If you want to use the rest of your deck for those last two cards, by all means do so.

The area that I'd like to work on right now is my attitude toward my daily life. I would like to be more enthusiastic about tackling challenges, particularly in mundane areas. Maybe they aren't challenges so much as little annoyances. Things like tidying up, or eating well, working out, or even getting the gumption to go out and do something when it's more comfortable and appealing to just stay in. I think the key word is gumption. I'm looking to develop 'gumption'. So in the spirit of the word, I will use the Prairie Tarot.

Prairie Tarot -- 9 of Cups

Prairie Tarot, Glow in the Dark 2011

Today I've drawn the 9 of Cups from Robin Ator's Prairie Tarot -- A Tarot of the American West. It's really good to see this card today, because I've got a long Friday ahead of me. But, happily, it's the Friday before I'm on holiday all week next week. So this card speaks to me of the expansive and relaxed feeling of the Friday evening before a weekend off to be followed by five days of sweet freedom, then still another weekend. Actually...that's nine days. 9 of Cups. Nine days of freedom.

The cowboy in the card relaxes in his local saloon, legs crossed, chair kicked back, lounging with both arms stretched out on the bar. He is at his ease. All the cups around, coupled with the saucy portrait of the nude hanging overhead, speak to me of luxury and leisure. Indulgence in slow days of rest and relaxation and contentment. That's what I need! So yeehaw, hand me down my hat...that cowboy's also got a pocket watch hanging from his shirt, to remind me that the respite doesn't last forever...but I'm going to enjoy it while it does!